This invention relates a tool holder for attaching tools to a turret of a turret lathe, and specifically relates to the tool holder of the turret lathe useful for attaching a complex tool installing a plurality of cutting edges thereon.
In a turret lathe, a number of angles of a turret limits the number of tools to be attached to the turret. For this reason, an ATC lathe equipped with an automatic tool exchanger (ATC), expensive rather than the turret lathe, has been used when the number of the tools necessary for machining is more than the angle of the turret.
In order to soften this limitation, a complex tool having a plurality of cutting edges located on a single body has been proposed. But, the complex tool can not be used in the turret lathe since the turret has no indexing function for selecting a desired cutting edge from the complex tool. Besides, high frequency in exchange of tool increases the time for exchange of tool in the ATC lathe, and the time necessary for machining excluding the time for cutting a workpiece is longer, and the machining efficiency is then lowered.
Under the above-mentioned, circumstances, the development of the tool holder of the turret lathe, having a clamping function for clamping a tool spindle at an indexed position, thereby making the use of complex tool in a turret lathe possible, for exchanging a tool in a short time, has been desired.